


Day two: Moments

by Snovolovac



Series: Advent shorts [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Castiel (Supernatural)-centric, Curious Castiel, Gen, Humor, Other characters only mentioned, Pre-Canon, but we already knew that, our angel is kinda a rule breaker in his youth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 03:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12925968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snovolovac/pseuds/Snovolovac
Summary: ... Or, how Castiel altered rules to satisfy his own curiosity.Before the apocalypse, when Castiel was still a fully powered angel on a mission to watch over people of Earth, he had had a custom. It was more of a hobby actually, but he only realized that fact later when he told Dean about it.He would pause moments.In retrospect, it was probably a dumb thing to do, but he had been young and curious to learn about new things. So he would stop time.





	Day two: Moments

**Author's Note:**

> None the characters are mine.
> 
> This work is a part of an ongoing series, prompt per day of an advent prompt list I found online.  
> Even though this is a series in honor of advent, none of the so far written one shots are even a little christmasy. My bad.  
> English is not my mother language, so please forgive any possible mistakes. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Prompt of the day: Moments

Before the apocalypse, when Castiel was still a fully powered angel on a mission to watch over people of Earth, he had had a custom. It was more of a hobby actually, but he only realized that fact later when he told Dean about it.

He would pause moments.

In retrospect, it was probably a dumb thing to do, but he had been young and curious to learn about new things. So he would stop time.

Castiel was stationed on Earth for thousands of years as a silent, invisible observer, not allowed to interact nor interfere with creation.

When he was first informed of his mission, he had been excited.

Which is another thing he had only realized later, for angels did not feel emotions and he had been forced to conceal his excitement from the start. Still, the echos of it had remained with him on the way down to Earth.

When he finally saw his Father's creation, he was in awe. It was beautiful.

Now, Castiel was a curious angel, he couldn't help it. And of course, being as curious as he was meant he would sometimes get himself in unnecessary trouble. It was just his fortune that one such trouble happened on his first day on Earth.

He had been walking with Gabriel along a shore when a small fish wiggled its way out of the water. Castiel, excited at the prospect of seeing a living organism and still practically being a fledgling, ran towards it to inspect it more closely. And in doing so, almost squished it with his light.

Had it not been for Gabriel, he would have probably killed it. The archangel grabbed his arm and pulled him back in time before any such tragic thing could happen.

Castiel was horrified and apologized profusely. He did not know these creatures could get hurt so easily.

His big brother had been amused at his account.

Castiel had been thanking heavens that no one else of his brothers and sisters had seen the almost-disaster they'd managed to avoid.

As the time passed, Castiel's fascination with the creatures that had developed under his watchful eyes hadn't weakened.

From the small fish to giant reptiles, from lightless sea depths to cloud touching flora, and finally to first signs of human life form.

And, oh how magnificent those were, the humans.

Castiel still thinks about their first steps from time to time with a smile.

They had been so vigorous, so raw in their interpretation of the world around them, Castiel couldn't get enough of it. He would watch them day and night, their hunting, their first attempts at art and music, at poetry. They did so many things all at once, felt so many emotions at the same time that Castiel had found it almost hard to keep up.

But he had remembered what had happened the last time he had gotten too close in his curiosity, and he would have to wrench himself away so as to not hurt any humans.

But his fascination and thirst for knowledge still poked at him and wouldn't let him be.

So he'd decided to pause it all. He would focus on a single moment he wanted to inspect in detail, and he would stop its flow.

Castiel knew he probably wasn't allowed to do it, but Anna, his garrison leader, didn't need to find out. He hadn't technically been breaking orders, because he hadn't been interacting, nor interfering with any happenings in creation, he would merely... Close the tap on time flow for a while.

It allowed him to inspect the creation from up close without hurting it. To see all which he would have otherwise missed while focusing on something else. He could move around them and get near without fear that they would run into him and hurt themselves. He wasn't on their plane of existence as he was that first day, but Castiel wasn't willing to risk it regardless. One near trauma had been enough.

This method allowed him to lean close to their faces and look into their eyes, memorizing the patterns of their irises, each one unique. He could get a better look at the jewelry they'd hung around their necks which they'd spend many hours around the fire beneath the stars creating. He could approach each and every being individually and read their souls and hearts from a new angle. Castiel hadn't fully grasped how souls worked until he'd started pausing time.

The souls, they weren't... programmed. They were full of different colors running around their own auras in every direction, drawing beautiful shapes and swirls, even paused as they were. They vibrated with feelings and emotions and wonder which Castiel never knew he needed to know of before. They were so new, so fresh, so... Something the angels never got to witness before. Castiel would later learn that the adjective he had been looking for had been free.

So Castiel had kept on doing it. Pausing moments whenever an interesting one caught his attention. He hadn't done it too often, otherwise someone would have been bound to notice, but often enough for his curiosity to be satisfied.

As the time passed by, he'd thought he would have learned all he wanted to know about creation and he would not have to pause it anymore, but he had been wrong. There were always more things to learn, more different emotions to try and distinguish, more everything Castiel had never experienced himself. Only witnessed.

But then one day, things changed.

Castiel's garrison had been called back to heaven after the events in Jerusalem, and for two thousand years, no angel had set foot amongst humans. Or at least, they weren't supposed to, but if Castiel had learned anything it was that there had always been exceptions to the rules. One of those even applied to himself when he had went back to punish Acobel, but that had been an event he would rather not think about. Ever.

And then the apocalypse happened and he hadn't exactly had much time for more than a quick glance of admiration at creation and flying off to another battle. It was so for years after, as well. When he wasn't helping Sam and Dean, he was helping heaven, and when he wasn't helping heaven, he was trying to atone for his mistakes, and when he wasn't doing that, he was graceless and in no condition to pause the time.

He missed the serenity of it. He would never pause it for longer than perhaps sixty times as much of the time he had stopped, but even a minute would always be enough to ease his troubled mind, when it was so.

He had told Dean all of this on one occasion. The hunter had been surprised and interested at first and then "creeped out", as he put it, at second, asking Castiel if he had ever paused him that way. Castiel had smiled and shook his head fondly at his friend, knowing how much Dean protected his own privacy. He hadn't done it to Dean.

Not that he hadn't been tempted, though. Dean's soul was probably the most complex and the most beautiful one he had ever seen and he wanted nothing more than to learn from it.

But he did not need to pause moments to do that.

Because unlike the time when he was stationed on Earth under heaven's command, now he was free.

He was allowed to interact, allowed to communicate, allowed to learn. Now, if he wanted to know something, all he had to do was ask. And now, he actually could ask, for he had a ves-... A body.

And sometimes, he doesn't even need to ask. He now manages to read his charges just by one simple look at their faces.

He suspects it is the human part of him that allows him to do it. The part he always had in him, which was what made him want to learn and explore in the first place.

The part which Dean and Sam had helped bring out and let take over more.

The part that made him realize that he is not a mere observer of moments. That instead of watching, he could make his own ones, live them out.

And Castiel realized he liked that idea.

In fact, he was excited about it.


End file.
